While the cavalry battle in front of Pilgramshain was winding down, Prince Leopold of Anhalt Dessau was leading nine battalions across the Striegauer-wasser bridges near Graben. They deployed quickly into a battle line and marched towards the Saxon infantry in The Gule. Prussian heavy guns on the Fuchs-berg covered Leopold's advance and ripped huge gaps in the Saxon line. The Saxon artillery was still stuck in the mud and could not respond. Count Truchsess brought up twelve more battalions to support Leopold and extended the Prussian line to the left, towards Gunthersdorf. By 6 A.M. all was ready and 21 battalions advanced towards the Saxons with shouldered muskets.

The Saxon artillery finally arrived and it opened up with cannister fire at 400 paces. The Prussians marched on despite a great loss of men. At 200 paces the Saxons let loose a volley of musket fire and still the moving wall of blue advanced. The Prussians marched well within the zone of effective musketry, halted and shattered the Saxon battle line with a return volley at 50 paces. At the same time, Du Moulin's infantry was pushing through Pilgramshain and threatening the left flank of the Saxons in The Gule.

By 7 A.M. the Saxons were in general retreat towards Eisdorf and Haslicht. To their credit though, it was an orderly retreat with some units stopping at each wall or ditch to turn around and fire at the pursuing Prussians.

One final incident would have a lasting effect on future SaxonPrussian relations. During the retreat, a few companies of Saxons refused to retreat, nor would they surrender to advancing squadrons of Prussian dragoons. The Prussian cavalry had heard rumors that the Saxons had been under orders (at the start of the battle) to give no quarter to the Prussian cavalry. So the Prussian dragoons attacked the Saxon infantry with a vengence and cut them down without mercy. The Saxons proved to have long memories, for twelve years later, the roles would be reversed at Kolin and Saxon cavalry would cut down fleeing Prussian infantry, while shouting, "this is for Striegau!"

Map: Leopold's Attack

MAP 3: Prince Leopold's attack of the Saxon infantry in "The Gule". By 7:00 A.M. the entire left wing of the allies was retreating towards Haslicht.

More Hohenfriedberg

Hohenfriedberg: Introduction
Hohenfriedberg: March and Battle Openings
Hohenfriedberg: Prince Leopold Attacks
Hohenfriedberg: Second Battles vs. Austrians
Hohenfriedberg: Order of Battle

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com